Contemporary artist Rosie Emerson
British artist Rose Emerson has combined her love of museums, architecture, theatre and silhouettes, with handmade costumes, prop making alongside printmaking and painting to create screen prints with subtle texture that echo previous eras.
Her genre-defying monochrome portraits feature almost exclusively women, from the modern day super model to the goddess Artemis.
Her delicate, almost ephemeral screen prints of classical and contemporary female figures are often embellished by charcoal powder, ash and sawdust: unusual materials that add an extra dimension to her hand finished prints.
Rosie Emerson’s figures draw reference from a range of archetypal figures. Models, actors, dancers and friends provide the physical subjects that she photographs, before bringing her creations to life using numerous different print techniques.
The art of the Cyanotype
Cyanotypes are among the oldest photographic printing processes, and Rosie’s discovery of the method led her in exciting new directions.
She coats paper with a light sensitive emulsion, then exposes objects and large scale photographic negatives to UV light from the sun to create images, which she then gilds or embellishes.
These textural prints shift the printmaking focus away from duplication, enabling the creation of something unique.
Rosie Emerson says the technique has “an element of magic about it, it is wonderful to be able to combine painting, collage and photography in this way”.
“I also like the unpredictability, how you can move things half way through the exposure, or allow the wind to catch the objects, things might happen!”
Something WickED this way comes...
She was commissioned by Hackney WickED Arts Festival to create a new Guinness World record by creating the world’s largest Cyanotype photograph.
Although her techniques may be rooted in the past, Rosie Emerson continues to push printmaking in new directions, most notably with the Photopolymer etchings.
These genre defying prints and monochrome portraits, representing the female form, are also delicately adorned with other unusual materials including netting, hair, cellophane and salt to create ornate surrounds.
A Rise Art Print award nominee
Rosie Emerson has gone from tearing out pages of fashion magazines and collaging and painting on top, to staging her own photoshoots, complete with dramatic lighting, to create genre defying prints that focused almost exclusively on representing the female form.
Career highlights to date for Rosie Emerson include being a finalist for the Young Masters Prize
and shortlisted for the Rise Art Print Award.
Her work has also been showcased in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, The Sunday Times Style Magazine and The Financial Times Magazine. She was also Artist in Residence at Somerset House.
Rosie Emerson has also exhibited her textural prints at the RWA and the Southbank Centre, as well as at international galleries, art fairs and museums.
More techniques to try out
Speaking about her beloved Cyanotypes, she says: “I love the fact people’s eyesight is different and we can both look at the same picture but see it differently.” There’s definitely more to come from this exciting contemporary artist.
Rosie Emerson is keen to try lots of other analogue photography techniques, most notably mordançage. “I love the technique but I don’t know where I’m going to go with it yet,” she says.
There are more works by Rosie Emerson here. You can browse all our artists here.
Contact us
To inquire about a work by Rosie Emerson or another artist, or discuss our framing service, email info@turnerartperspective.com.
Alternatively, you can ring our Chelmsford gallery on 01245 248662 or our Shenfield gallery on 01277 500554, or fill in this enquiry form and we’ll get back to you straightaway.